This is another year-end roundup about the local music scene and which biggies played where, but it doesn't begin with blink-182. Or P.O.D. Or the Mar Dels (OK, that was a joke). So you might say, well, it's got to be North County's Nickel Creek -- Country Music Television still loves them and CMT's love trickled on down to 91X and KPRI -- or Switchfoot, whose anthemic rocker "Meant to Live" saw chart action.
Agent 51 got a local hit in "She's My Heroine," but it's a far cry from the response to this year's round-up winner Jason Mraz. He of the ubiquitous red mesh hat. He of the undeniable "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)."
Anyone with a pop or alternative station preset in their car stereo couldn't help but mouth along to this: "The remedy is the experience. It is a dangerous liaison / I say the comedy is that it's serious / Which is a strange enough new play on words / I say the tragedy is how you're gonna spend the rest of your nights with the light on / So shine the light on all of your friends because it all amounts to nothing in the end."
"The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" was co-written by the hit magicians in the Matrix, but at least Mraz didn't pull a Liz Phair and employ the team to rip off one of its own clients, Avril Lavigne.
Mraz's major-label debut, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come," actually came out in October 2002 but didn't really take off until the following year. To no one's surprise, the Virginia transplant-cum-Java Joe's alum was christened artist of the year at the 2003 San Diego Music Awards. Better yet, Jason Mraz was scheduled to perform last night on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" along with such far-flung notables as Hall & Oates and 3 Doors Down.
Blink-182 and P.O.D. may not be on Dick Clark's short list, but the two San Diego powerhouses continued to carry weight on the national scene.
South Bay's P.O.D. parted ways with guitarist Marcos Curiel, who told MTV News in February that the band fired him. P.O.D. replaced Curiel, now in the Accident Experiment, with Living Sacrifice's Jason Truby and released its third album for Atlantic Records, "Payable on Death," in November. The success of the song "Will You" and the "Matrix Reloaded" single "Slipping Away" strongly suggested that P.O.D. isn't going anywhere south for now. Up the 15, blink-182 drummed up a good deal of publicity by sponsoring a bargain-basement tour with MTV that also included rapper Bubba Sparxxx. The $1 tour, which took weeks, OK, minutes (perhaps seconds) to sell out, stopped at SOMA San Diego in November. Blink's new album, which the band's label stressed was "untitled" not "self-titled," easily outpeformed its predecessors artistically, but commercially the CD hasn't exactly soared as one might expect. Still, after five weeks, "Untitled" stands at No. 16 at Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, an unfathomable spot for most acts. "Feeling This," a relative difficult song for a blink single, represented the
band's push for craftier, denser arrangements, not hitting that standard-issue pop-punk chord progression until two-thirds through, then concluding with a staggered flood of vocal loops from Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus.
Nickel Creek and Switchfoot earned spots in this review when they exceeded expectations at Street Scene in San Diego. While some must have wondered what the heck Presidents of the United States of America and Kottonmouth Kings, among others, were doing there, these North County acts made their qualifications clear. Switchfoot had grunge anthems ("Meant to Live") that didn't move like molasses -- um, Creed -- and irresistible, if light, guitar-pop tunes lifted by smart lyrics, "Adding to the Noise." Switchfoot earned national press, including Rolling Stone, for its CD "The Beautiful Letdown" and showed up on late-night television.
Nickel Creek previewed new tunes at Street Scene that revealed mandolinist-singer Chris Thile's inner Beatle -- any songwriter worth a darn loves the Beatles --- and a band with an amazing gift for melody and phrasing, and one eager to continue blurring the lines further. Guitarist Sean Watkins released his second solo album, "26 Miles," in April, revealing himself to be a fan of Elliott Smith, who killed himself in October, a hugely deflating, if not entirely surprising, tragedy. Let's hope that rock critics in 30 years are commending songwriters for revealing their inner Smith -- whose inner Lennon shone bright -- in the course of their evolution. The Recording Academy noticed, bestowing a Grammy on the band's "This Side" CD as Best Contemporary Folk Album in February.
Temecula screamo act Finch also got a Street Scene invite but failed to let much nuance bleed through the Deftones-style white-noise squall If screamo is some '00 concoction of emo-tilted hardcore bands -- wasn't that once called emo-core? -- then plain old "emo" seems to be warmed-over whiny pop-punk (Simple Plan).
Fighting that unfortunate trend is Encinitas-tied Noise Ratchet, which signed with Columbia-affiliated American Recordings in 2003 and is now represented by the William Morris Agency. Noise Ratchet won its own 2003 San Diego Music Award, for best rock band. That's better than for best emo band, any group would tell you.
North County rockers such as the Classified and Counterfit continued to plow ahead. Kut U Up premiered the documentary starring the Encinitas band on tour with blink-182 and Green Day, "Riding in Vans With Boys," at the Belly Up Tavern in December. A national "Riding in Vans With Boys" tour is scheduled in 2004 with blink-182. The DVD is in stores now.
Rancho Santa Fe's Jewel rechristened herself a dance-pop singer with the June release of "0304." People bought it and the songs "Intuition" and "Stand" became hits. Tragedy struck, though, in September when Jewel's bassist Terome Hannon died of a brain aneurysm. She scrapped a full-band tour set to support "0304," then retooled it as a solo venture, performing at Copley Symphony Hall on Dec. 1.
The Belly Up changed hands this past summer when David Hodges sold the club to Steven Goldberg and Phil Berkovitz, who immediately dumped the club's long-running "Spotlight San Diego" series, albeit while still permitting bookings of local acts, including Kut U Up, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash and others. Marketing director Scott MacDonald, who oversaw Spotlight San Diego and local bookings, left. Kira Finkenberg became the new marketing director, although the Belly Up later hired longtime San Diego music fixture Al Guerra to book local acts. Once Sprung Monkey's manager, Guerra now manages Agent 51 and recently landed at 91X as its new "Loudspeaker" host. Diana Martinez remained the club's talent buyer, although her new bosses said they are open to using outside promoters to bring in shows.
Since acquiring its new owners, the Belly Up has welcomed such acts as the legendary Motown outfit the Funk Brothers, Ozomatli, country singer Pat Green, Eminem protege Obie Trice, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, the Nortec Collective, reunited Greyboy Allstars and Suzanne Vega. On tap for January and February are former New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight, Reverend Horton Heat (tonight), Psychedelic Furs (Saturday), Rickie Lee Jones and Victor Wooten. Let's not be too quick to make dire predictions just because Solana Beach icon Hodges isn't running things anymore.
Down the road and to the east, The Scene nightclub closed with a show featuring alt-pop wunderkind duo Pinback. The Scene closed not because of low attendance -- emo, punk, reggae were well-represented -- but because it outgrew its space in a Kearny Mesa business park. The venue's owners plan to reopen once they find a suitable location -- hopefully one with better sound but the same easygoing atmosphere.
North County saw its usual entertainment mainstays -- Fiesta del Sol (May) and San Diego County Fair (June and July) return once more. Making a "Commotion by the Ocean" in 2003 at the fair were Grand Funk Railroad, James Brown, New Found Glory, David Cassidy, Pat Benetar, Tracy Byrd, Bo Diddley and "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose crowning achievement, "Smells Like Nirvana," gained a response that shows just how much the kids still dig Kurt Cobain's band. Or like Weird Al gargling the melody.
So nostalgia sells, which also meant big dollars for Indian casinos and Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay. Pala Casino and Harrah's Rincon Casino joined Pechanga Casino as fairly major players in 2003. Pechanga led the way with a consistent calendar that featured such acts as Dana Carvey, Hootie and the Blowfish, Anita Baker, George Jones, Tony Bennett and Heart. Pala weighed in with Blackhawk, the Knack, Billy Bob Thornton and Jo Dee Messina, while Harrah's Rincon brought in Jay Leno, the Smothers Brothers, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and Tony Bennett as well.
North County's other prime venue for national acts, California Center for the Arts, Escondido, welcomed artists such as Debbie Reynolds, the Chieftains, Peter, Paul & Mary, Loretta Lynn and satirist Bill Maher.
But focusing solely on North County venues might be considered too provincial. What about the major players, such as Coors Amphitheatre, Cox Arena, San Diego Sports Arena and even Humphrey's? Fine, we must start with Super Bowl XXXVII in January at Qualcomm Stadium. No Doubt and Sting seemed to have different ideas of how "Message in a Bottle" should sound. But there was something frenetic about Gwen Stefani's weary, obviously live vocals during No Doubt's "Just a Girl," compared to the canned energy of Shania Twain. The pregame festivities saw appearances by Santana, Michelle Branch, Beyonce and others. The entertainment preceding the big game simply exceeds this story's size constraints, which means there was a lot of entertaining going on in San Diego in January.
Seemingly every year, any number of the top 10 grossing tours ignore San Diego, and 2003 was no different. Bruce Springsteen obviously detests San Diego with a stinging passion, as he never, ever comes to San Diego. OK, that's not true; Bruce performed at the San Diego Civic Theatre in 1996. His 2003 tour grossed $116 million, good for all-time second after the Rolling Stones' 1994 tour, according to concert-industry watcher Pollstar.
No. 2 2003 grosser Celine Dion earned much of her dough at her residency in Las Vegas. No. 3 band the Eagles returned to San Diego for first time since 1994's "Hell Freezes Over" tour, drawing 14,000-plus fans, far less than the '94 tour at then-Jack Murphy Stadium, to the 20,000-seat Coors Amphitheatre in August. Of the other seven top earners, Fleetwood Mac (San Diego Sports Arena in July), Cher (San Diego Sports Arena in September), Simon & Garfunkel (Coors Amphitheatre in November), Aerosmith/KISS (Coors Amphitheatre in October), and Dixie Chicks (Cox Arena in July) hit San Diego, while Billy Joel/Elton John and the "Summer Sanitarium Tour" with Metallica and Linkin Park did not. Package tours Ozzfest and the Warped Tour once again came.
Other notables included Coldplay (May), Toby Keith (August), John Mayer (July), Pearl Jam (June), Beck (June), matchbox twenty (November), 50 Cent (May) and Foo Fighters (April). The White Stripes sold out 1,500-person SOMA San Diego in February, then came back and sold out UC San Diego's 5,000-capacity RIMAC Arena in September. San Diego favorite Jack Johnson continued to display his power here, selling out Spreckels Theatre in May, then returning with Ben Harper in July to their locally favorite venue, the RIMAC field. Johnson also treated fans to a free show at Lou's Records in Encinitas the day of his Spreckels gig. The king of beach-folk appeared genuinely enthusiastic in thanking his jazzed audience and 91X for their help in building his career. A long line of fans waited patiently for Johnson to sign everything from CDs and apparel to surfboards.
Advance apologies to all those local folks who were not squeezed into this story, namely the always busy and Preview regular Peter Sprague and the fine folks at San Diego Folk Heritage who keep folk-concert fans happy every year.
What local group will top 2004? Could it be the Troys? Perhaps, if the once-North County sisters ever get their debut disc released. Maybe Eve Selis will become the big star her fans and a certain Poway concert venue think she is. Then again, it might just be blink-182, P.O.D., Nickel Creek, Jason Mraz and Switchfoot, not necessarily in that order. So far, Dave Matthews, Sting, Josh Groban, Britney Spears and Regis Philbin have all promised to stop by our fine area in 2004.
